This was my first time visiting fanime, so I was eager to compare this competition to other cons (coughcoughAXcoughcough).Nydyne wrote: Presentation was excellent scott. Best it has ever been. The 24 theme was very well done and everything went very smooth, something you don't expect from an AMV contest. From a technical standpoint, the only problem i saw with the contest was the sound quality. That was quite minimal though.
The competition had some very strong points and some weak points, from a execution standpoint. On the good side for starters, it began on time. WOW. The 24 theme was pretty slick too. You'll never see AX doing that simply because they'd get their ass slapped. One of the perks of being under the radar for fanime I guess.
Weak points was definitely sound quality. I initially chalked it up to bad accoustics in the auditorium, but there was a rumor that the audio equipment was in poor shape. I'm still more apt to chalk it to acoustics because even some of AX's contests sounded like that, and they get very good equipment. Acoustics is pretty much beyond control unless you're in a concert hall. As I mentioned at the pre-awards panel (thanks for the invite, Brad! ^_^) that is one of the things people should factor for when making their AMVs.
A point that irked me that was within control was the fact that the slates at the start of each video listed the complete info. Creator, videos used, music used, and AMV title. That stuff should be saved for the end of the video so as not to skew the audience, and the first slate should just have AMV title. As PWolf complained in his blog, people would cheer for videos before they even played, or jeer certain videos based on what footage they used. Not cool. I gave my suggestion to the coordinator, so perhaps he'll think it over for next year.
While I still feel there's been a decline in creativity over the past few years, there were quite a few good videos in the contest. There were two videos that I voted for that didn't win anything--Rain, and It's a Deadman's Party--and I just wanted to give a shout out to them to say good work. Drama category was a tough vote for me, so I'll give props to "Always" as well, which did win. Creative blending of manga and anime in there.
I also want to give a special shout to "Hold me Now." When I saw that AMV, all I could say was "WOW." I was just blown away by it, and I truly hope to see it at a convention big screen again because you've got a well deserved Best of Show coming to you somewhere. You missed Fanime's by ~25 votes, in case you hadn't heard.
